10 Cool Items for Your Design Workspace

August 31, 2009

As designers, we spend a lot of time in our collective workspaces. So why not make our workspaces the best places we can? Below are 10 cool items for your design workspace – some are free, some are cheap, some are expensive, and some are just plain nerdy. I have a couple of the items below, and those I don’t have are definitely on my list. Enjoy & share!

Most designers I know start off each new project by sketching like mad. And if you’re like me, erasing like mad. But how to get rid of those pesky post-erasing eraser bits? Worry no more my friends: the Eraser Brush is here to save you. What an ingeniously simple solution.

Yet another ingeniously simple solution, but this time the solution is for the problem of clutter on your desktop. The Backpack is a nifty little device for iMacs that sits on the back vertical stand and can hold whatever you wish – external drives, pencils and pens, the last granola bar in the house from your overly inquisitive wife/business partner… you know, everyday stuff.

The Art Lebedev store is full of amazing concepts & well-designed items – like this, the Verbarius clock. This clock tells you what time it is, in text & plain terms, and in various languages. No numbers, just phrases like ‘Quarter to Nine’. Plus its sleek & simple design will work in near any environment.

I have a teeny tiny whiteboard on the wall of my workspace where I keep notes for my ongoing projects – what would have been better is this awesome dry-erase paint. You paint it on, it looks like a white wall, and then BAM! you’re drawing all over the wall with erasable markers. Definitely recommended. Still not recommended: drawing on your walls with crayons.

This is probably the nerdiest item on the list, but hey – it’s free & you can download it at various sizes to print yourself, or you can buy vinyl versions to decal up your wall. Nerdy-cool, and useful!

You can’t have a workspace without music. Well, I can’t at least. Enter the Geneva iPod Sound Dock. Looks amazing, and sounds amazing. There are a bunch of docks out there now, but this one is the best-designed in my opinion. Various colors & sizes.

Winner of several design awards, the Bluelounge Sanctuary charging station is pretty much a must have. It takes all your various chargers & cables, tidies them up, and provides a contained little space to charge them. From cell phones to iPods to Bluetooth headsets and more, what’s not to like?

This is just plain cool. There are some ugly items around the office/workspace that need to be there, and usually we just live with them (and their ugliness – like plastic staplers). But if you can’t deal with the red Swingline, pick up this Pacman stapler. Note: will not fend off ghosts.

This cheaper alternative to the Apple monitors is beautifully designed. While I can’t vouch for the quality of the LCD (it isn’t out in the marketplace yet), it sure does look purty. Designed specifically for Macs, unlike any non-Apple monitor out there right now. Comes in 24″ as well as a 47″ behemoth.

There you go – 10 items that will make your design workspace even cooler than it already is. Bookmark, share, & subscribe to the RSS feed here.